To make housing more affordable for the general public, the Ministry of the Interior is building subsidized housing at four selected sites in Linkou. More than 3,900 apartments will go on sale at the end of this year, with the price being set at around 150,000 NT dollars per ping. In order to address the problem of lack of affordable housing, the Ministry of the Interior has decided to build affordable housing units on top of the MRT Linkou A7, with an average price at around NT$150,000 per ping. The housing units will be around 9.81 hectares, and the bidding process has ended on July 8th. The site has been divided into four sections, and the units will be built by four contractors, including Farglory, Huang Hsiang, Advancetek and Lih Pao, who won the bids at prices ranging from NT$240,000 to NT$260,000 each ping. Director-General of Construction and Planning Agency said that the construction of the project is likely to begin at the end of this year. "The companies are expected to get the construction licenses no later than next April, and people can start applying for the units. One thing we can be sure is that the construction will start at the end of this year." [3]The CPA said that the housings will be energy efficient homes. And to change general publics negative perception towards government-built houses, the housing units will be located in convenient neighborhood, with easily accessible public transportation nearby. The CPA will also monitor the contractors on the quality of the housing, in order to provide the highest quality of living for future house owners. The apartments cannot be sold within five years of purchase. Priority will be given to families earning below the average income, these units are 10% to 20% cheaper than those in the neighboring areas. However, the Social Housing Association warned that the resale price will probably be higher than the purchase price, which means that the problem of high housing prices still won't be solved. The project can only benefit first-time buyers of the units, and people who want to buy the units will have to pay more. "The biggest problem of government-built housings is the resale price is a lot more higher than the purchase price. We think the government should rent the housing units rather than sell them, and therefore we don't support the project." The Linkou project will consist of 3,960 apartments, with 199 of them being available to be rented. The price is expected to range from NT$150,000 to NT$162,000 per ping. The apartments will go on sale at the end of the year at the earliest, with each apartment priced ranging from NT$4.5 million to NT$7 million. People who do not own housing, and with annual incomes not exceeding 1.58 million NT dollars are eligible buyers.